Blog

Backing up employees with Tracking

Posted by Belynda Warner
on 22nd July 2014

More than once, we've heard from discouraged business owners that adding GPS to their company vehicles caused some grumbling among their employees. But most of the time, the grumbling goes away when those same employees learn how GPS can back them up. Hearing about it is one thing, but watching it play out is entirely another.
I have to admit, I worked for a GPS tracking provider for a good year before I used GPS to back up an employee. We had billed a customer for 2 hours of service work, back in the day when data was transmitted by line of sight to an RF antenna mounted on the side of their building. Our technician had diagnosed a problem with the antenna, gone to a hardware store to pick up a replacement part, and returned to make the necessary repairs. The customer called to dispute the bill, saying there was no way the technician was onsite that long. I called the technician to ask him if he was onsite that long, and his answer was simply "Why don't you check my GPS?" (Why not, indeed.) When we presented the GPS report to the customer, showing that in fact, the technician had been onsite a cumulative two and a quarter hours not including the trip to the hardware store, the dispute was resolved. My technician didn't have to prove anything. I was able to do it, and shouldn't even have needed to interrupt his day.
One of our customers is a trash company. They have sensors connected to their GPS units, so every time a trash truck's lift arm picks up a dumpster to empty it, a notation is added to their GPS reporting showing the truck's time and location. When a customer calls to complain that their trash was not picked up, customer service reps can quickly and easily check that route and either prove that the dumpster was emptied, or remedy the situation if for some reason it was not.
We have had customers call our dispatch team here and say that our installer is not onsite a scheduled. Rather than call the installer to ask where he is, we can easily check to see that yes, he is onsite, or no, he is stuck in traffic a mile away.
Protecting employees from accusations is another very sensitive, but important benefit of having GPS. A customer shared with us that one of her employees was accused of a crime that happened in a school yard. However, using the GPS tracking in that same employee's vehicle, she was able to prove that her employee was at a customer's location, doing his job at the time the crime occurred, nowhere near the crime scene. That's a bit of an extreme example, but you might be able to relate to the frustration of getting an undeserved speeding ticket. One of our employees recently used the data from the GPS unit in his company truck to fight a traffic ticket and was rewarded with a reduced fine. My own husband, head janitor around here, managed to get out of a speeding ticket completely by using GPS data from our personal vehicle.
It's difficult to explain to a group of uncertain employees that GPS is their friend, I get it. But at the same time, the employees who have nothing to hide usually won't mind. And those who do mind are often quickly convinced when their support team back at the office backs them up using their GPS, and then making sure they know about it.